I have officially moved my thoughts here. Hope to see you there!

I started this blog over three years ago to chronicle my life as a soon-to-be mom and write about all the funny and not-so funny things that would happen along the way. I knew it would be fun to do, meeting new people, sharing some laughs, and I would enjoy leaving my small, but significant mark on the world. What I didn’t expect was to embark on a journey that would change my life forever.

Through this blog, I have met and reconnected with many people, people who I have laughed with, cried with, and found support and friendship with. I count myself lucky to have met many of you, especially the ones who have supported me and reached out with your words to rejoice with me on the mountaintops and to cry with me in the valleys.

But like all good things in life, this blog must come to an end. While it was nothing specific that has made me decide to close this chapter of my life, I just feel it was started with the best of intentions and to fill a hole in my heart that was left gaping for so long. That hole has since been filled and it is time to move on. It saddens me so much since this avenue has been healing and therapeutic in ways that I don’t even understand. I have loved sharing with the world things that make me laugh and bring me joy, and three of the most important people in my life - Tim, Conner, and Max - yet I am ready to once again keep my personal life personal and move on to things that concern me in ways that I don’t mind them being public.

So what is a true Laughing Daisies groupie to do? Well, hopped on the twitter band-wagon (after I swore up and down that I would never do it) for those who really want to know what we’re up to, and flickr will still host all of our photo’s. I also created a facebook account (see the post below) since myspace officially creeps me out. And because I seriously am addicted to blogging, I am not giving it up completely. My new blog (still being tweaked and perty-fied) will definitely have a different feel, but will still be 100% me and dive into things that I am really passionate about. I’m very excited about it and hope you’ll join me over there (and please say hello if you do!). You can leave a comment with your email addy or follow me on twitter if you’d like to know when it will be up and running.

For those who have read my blog from day one, thank you for your faithfulness. For those who reached out to me during some of my low-points, thank you for your kindness. For those who introduced yourself from randomly stumbling across this site, thank you for sticking around. And for those who are truly sad that this blog will be no more, thank you for being a part of my life and letting me be a part of yours.

I’ve never been a jewelry person, especially necklaces and bracelets. However after we moved, I realized I had more jewelry than I originally thought. I’m not a fan of the traditional jewelry boxes you see, so I saw an idea in one of my home magazines (can’t find it to cite it at the moment) to use a cutlery tray to organize your necklaces and bracelets. I thought leaving it as-is was kind of boring and used my craftiness to jazz it up a bit and I’m going to show you how.

What you’ll need is as follows:

Cutlery Tray
Various Scrapping Papers
Decorative knobs and pulls
Drill (with correct size bit)
Double-sided permanent adhesive
Exacto Knife
Ruler or straight-edge
Tape measure
Sand paper
Paint
Jigsaw (or small hand-saw)
Wood glue
Wood molding
Masking tape

As you can see, I added wood molding to the surface of mine, but that requires extra steps of sanding, sawing, and gluing. So if you have the knowledge and the tools to do that, it gives it a little extra flair, but you can keep it easy and simple and omit that part, thus omitting the last four to six supplies. I’m going to include my steps just in case you’re wanting to do the same.

First you’re going to drill your holes to place the knobs. I placed mine about an inch down and marked the spot with a pen, then drilled with a drill bit large enough to accommodate the screws for the knobs.

Next, you’ll want to cut the molding pieces. They were cut to match up in the corners, which requires you sawing them at an angle. The easiest way to do this is to to measure the width (in this case, one-half inch) and then measure that distance down the back of the molding and mark it. Then draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner of where you marked it. Cut on the diagonal line.

After all your pieces are cut, you’ll piece them together by gluing them on the surface with the wood glue. You might need to sand your surface first if it has a finish it on it, so the glue will work and also so the paint will stick. If you have wood clamps you can use them, however I found it was much easier to just use masking tape. Tape all the wood pieces down, then turn the tray over so it’s laying face-down and pile some heavy books on top. Let dry for a few hours.

Once the glue has dried you’ll remove the tape and paint your tray. Make sure it is completely dry before going to the next step.

Next, you’re going to apply your paper. Measure out the spaces of the compartments and using your exacto knife and ruler or straight edge, you’re going cut out the pieces. You can use spray adhesive to place your papers but it can get really sticky and messy very quickly, so that’s why I like using double-sided tape. You’ll turn your paper over, line the sides with the tape and place in the compartments, pressing down firmly so the tape adheres.

Next you’re going to take your exacto knife and very carefully poke through the back to the front, to pierce the paper to place the knobs. (You could also wait to drill your spaces until you adhere your paper, omitting the first step. I was just afraid it would mess up my paper, but as long as you’re careful you should be fine.)

Add your knobs and voila! You have a pretty and functional jewelry organizer.

Remember a few months back when I teased you with a post saying I was going to do a tutorial for stamping your own onesies? Well I finally got my rear in gear and decided to post it. Now, please don’t over think this - it’s very easy to do. My instructions will be clear but not incredibly detailed and if you have any questions, post them in the comments and I’ll try and help you out.

So first things first, the things you’re going to need:

- onesies
- cardboard or cardstock
- Staz-on or other solvent ink
- stamps
- iron

First, you’re going to want to wash and dry your onesies. Washing them makes the ink stick better so while you don’t have to do this step, I do recommend it or your ink will fade a lot after the first washing and will continue to with each wash.

Next you’re going to place your cardboard in between the front and back to keep the ink from bleeding through. If you’re using a white or light-colored onesie, this would be a good opportunity to draw some thick, dark lines on your cardboard so it will show through and allow you to make a neater, more aligned stamped image, especially if you’re using letters. I like to free-style it but it’s totally your preference.

Next you’ll ink your stamp, covering the entire image area very well (make sure to be careful not getting any on your clothes or workstation as this is permanent) and then stamp your image, letters, whatever tickles your fancy onto the fabric. You may want to give a practice stamp on a piece of paper - sometimes the solvent gets really inky and will ooze in between the stamps grooves, making the image more blurred and not as detailed when you transfer it to the fabric. You’ll also want to make sure you’re getting enough ink on the stamp since doing it again and being precise will be difficult.

After the ink has dried (somewhere between 10-15 minutes), you’ll want to warm your iron on the medium setting (in between dry and steam), and run it over the image for about 5 seconds. This will heat-set the ink and will keep it from fading in the wash.

And thats it!

Just a couple more thoughts. Staz-on is really expensive ($8 per ink pad), so unless you’re going to be doing oodles of them or selling them, I wouldn’t recommend purchasing more than one or two colors, preferably a black, charcoal, or brown. You can always add color by using permanent markers (Sharpie now offers them in an array of colors, and you just fill in the stamped image), buttons, beads or stitching. Overall, this craft when you add in everything can be expensive. Rubber stamps can be bought cheapily, but after the ink, onsies and stamps, each onesies can cost around $8-$10, depending on how many you are making. So if you’re wanting to do this craft on the cheap, Gerber onesies come in 5-packs for about $10, then you can then purchase a few simple stamps, an ink pad, and then a few embellishments (thread and buttons), and make five onesies for the cost of around $5 a piece. This is a great idea for a baby shower and could help off-set the cost if a few people went in together as a gift for the mother-to-be.